If you take the time to carefully examine all of the images the German artist Markus Vogt has in his
Renderosity gallery, you will no doubt have a strong reaction to them. You should, because his “in your
face” style is meant to create an emotional response in the viewer. Very much in the tradition of great
Romantic artists like Casper David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Cole, Vogt's images are not
so much ideas, as representations of spectacle, horror, and awe. Alternating from depictions of freakish
men and women, to scenes of powerful machines and cityscapes of such epic scale that the human
figures in them are dwarfed and powerless. Gazing at Markus Vogt's work is at times like standing in a
gale on some lost, broken heath. Or, if instead of Virgil, Mr. Vogt was your guide through the Inferno of
Dante. His work has that kind of power.

My pictures are meant for all persons who are interested in real or
idealistic graphics art and for those who are open-minded for various
styles and do not want to see the same kind of creation over and over
again. I do not want to follow certain "up to date" trends or making
images just for a lot of meaningless comments or expectations of others
- unfortunately you can often find exactly this behaviour in many online
communities and forums.
-markusvogt.eu

Markus Vogt has been pushing the boundaries and rebelling against the standard trends both online and
in the digital art world for about 6 years now. He's been a member of Renderosity.com for 5 of those
years and has an impressive following. With titles like “Captured,” “Unknown Civilization ” and “Spider
Guard” you immediately know that his work is not going to be like most of the art you'll find at
Renderosity (or anywhere else, for that matter). And words like “brilliant” and “amazing” appear with
regularity in the comments section of all of his images. Mostly, because his images are not only dark
and, at times, disturbing, but it's because they are crafted with such incredible technical skill.

Forced Landing

It's clear that Markus is an intense and serious artist who at his well designed website (he did it himself)
states that although his art is dark,

“...it is never intended to support and associate terms like pure violence,
satanism, extreme right-wing or any other similar tendencies! I never
want to bring my art in relationship with those ideologies - so please
keep this in mind.”

Smart of him to provide this reminder even though most of us understand that the artist who creates
disturbing imagery is not himself disturbed. On the contrary, I was fortunate to interview Markus by
email and he is focused like a laser on what he's trying to do with his work. Our
conversation which spread over two longish emails was surprising to me and very different than other
interviews I've conducted. You have to put aside any expectations in encountering both Markus Vogt
and his art work.

I talked to Markus about specific works, his working methods and tools, and about his experience
showing at Renderosity.com (among other topics). You can see his full Renderosity gallery here. His
personal website has 4 large picture galleries in high quality, plus news and contact info.

Unknown Civilization

Interview with Artist Markus Vogt

Ricky Grove: Why don't we start with some of your work, Markus? At Renderosity, "Forced
Landing" is one of your works with the most comments. Where did the idea come for this
work? How long did you work on the piece? What were you trying to accomplish with the image?

Markus Vogt: Yes, "Forced Landing" is still one of my personal favourites too. Well, the idea came
more or less from a DVD by a french artist called Rainart. On his DVD "From Speedpainting to
Mattepainting" he shows the creation of a huge complex building in a very moody and atmospheric
environment. So, the idea came in mind to adapt something like this to 3d and I came up with a very
large and heavy spacecraft in conjunction with some people in front of it making the scale
understandable. I have combined several different meshes to achieve a more complex and detailed look
on the ship and did a lot of Photoshop postwork to get rid of the typical clean and lifeless 3d rendered
look. The working time was about 2-3 days, including breaks of course.

Ricky Grove: An image I find extremely evocative is "Unknown Civilization." What was it like
creating this particular image? In an interview I read on the net you mention that you like to
work at the fringes of your digital tools, is this an image where you did that? It reminds me
a lot of science fiction covers of books I read in the fifties by Murray Leinster and Philip K. Dick.
Is written science fiction an influence? Or is it more the cinema and artists like Edward Miller?

Markus Vogt: No, written science fiction is not an influence. More cinema and the classic sci-fi or
dark surrealists like Giger and Beksinski. To be honest I do not know those artists you´ve mentioned.
"Unknown Civilization" was more or less intended as a follow up to one of my previous images called
"Toxic City." It contains already the same kind of buildings and dramatic environment. I really love
those huge and gigantic sci-fi cityscapes in an unknown future. Leaving those images without any
characters in it gives a lot more room for atmosphere, imagination or the fantasy of the viewer in my
opinion. Who and how could those types of environments be built? That´s probably one of those
questions the viewer might ask or become curious about. And this makes it interesting I guess.

Ricky Grove: I've also read that you started with 2D art about 6 years ago; what was it that caused
you to start creating 2D art? A gallery visit? A book? And when you started with 3D what was the
catalyst? And are you entirely self-taught? What were you interested in before you started
creating art?

Markus Vogt: I always enjoyed drawing or painting since my childhood. Since the computer age,
creating art became very versatile and fascinating, giving options that are never possible achieving
traditionally. I have to say that I am not a very patient person so I do not want to spend many weeks or
months just for creating one single image. So digital work is perfect! First of all, I started with some
simple vector based 2d programs like CorelDraw, but that was not really sufficient for me. Shortly later I became interested in the fantastic possibilities 2d image editing and 3d animation programs had to
offer. It is indeed a neverending story.

And yes, I am completely self-taught via many different books, video tutorials and lots of practical
experimentation of course. I was always interested in music as well, especially in the experimental
electronic genre. Nowadays, I am very versatile when it comes to my personal taste. I hear almost
everything that sounds good to me and I do not care about certain genres, band names or styles. It is
the same sort of thing like in graphics, every style has good and outstanding examples, and each has
very bad and meaningless examples. So, thinking in those categories is not a good idea in my
experience.

Ricky Grove: It looks like the main tools you use to create your artworks are Poser, Photoshop, Vue,
CINEMA 4D and Bryce. What led you to these tools? And why CINEMA 4D in particular? I 'm just starting to use C4D myself and am curious about your experience.

Markus Vogt: My main tools nowadays are Photoshop, CINEMA 4D and ZBrush. Those are the most
powerful applications in my opinion, and the combination of these really gives endless possibilites. In
the past I used Bryce and Vue as well, but today not very often. I think using so many different
programs is too confusing for the artist´s work, so concentrating on just a few makes more sense to me.

About CINEMA 4D: this program has the most benefits. It has a very good and fair license policy, a very
logical and clear interface and simply all the tools a 3d artist needs - and many more of course.
It is also very fast and stable. I have tested a lot of other programs like Maya, Rhino or Modo, but C4D
is the tool of choice. But often most of the work is done in Photoshop, so I use the 3d tools more or less
as just a pre-stage for the final work or just as a basis for the image.

Invaders 5

Ricky Grove: How long does it take you to create one of your pieces? Do you have a workshop or
Studio you work out of? Do you use a single computer or multiple ones? PC/Mac?

Markus Vogt: I always give my pieces some breaks and take a look at them after a day or two with
fresh eyes. So I can see the mistakes I made, bringing in some new ideas as well. So, all in all I work 4
to 5 days on one image, sometimes shorter or longer. This cannot be said in general. I mostly work
from my home "studio" on a single PC.

Ricky Grove: Can you tell me a bit about your background? I know you live in Germany, did you
grow up there? What did you study in school? I'm also curious if you are much of a video game
player? Does the art in video games influence you at all?

Markus Vogt: There is not much to say about my background. Yes, I grew up in Germany and still live
there. In a small town near Frankfurt/Main. I have to say that I was never a video gamer, I do not know
certain video games and, to be honest, I am not interested in such things. As I spend a lot of time in front
of my computer I always want to take a break and make some alternative physical activities like
swimming, cycling or tennis. So, sitting in my room and playing any video games over and over in
addition to my already time consuming other computer work sounds horrific to me. No, thanks!

Markus Vogt: Yes, those people are real masters and they are the greatest influence for me! What I appreciate is the originality and quality in their pieces. They do not follow any trends, they have found
really their own and unique styles by combining many different other styles or medias. In addition to this
they have the knowledge and ability to tell some kind of stories via their pictures. So, often their pieces
could be stills from films as well. That is not seen very often and makes it still interesting no matter
how many similar images are previously made.

Ricky Grove: Creating work like yours must be quite an effort to get through all of the technical
work to the feeling or poetry of your imagery; do you set aside works sometimes? Images that
just don't work? And how much do you pay attention to technical matters in a program like
Poser? Do you find yourself spending a lot of time in a certain area like rendering, more than
other areas?

Markus Vogt: Yes, of course, there are always images or steps that don't work. I guess the same goes
for nearly all other artists. Sometimes it´s the best to start completely fresh and over the years you
develop an eye for what could work and what will never work - no matter how much time you will
spend on it. It has simply the wrong path or starting point.

In Poser I do not pay attention to technical matters as
most of my work was done later in Photoshop. So, I do not spend too much time in rendering for hours
and hours with a probably (and often) insufficient result. That is annoying to me. I like to do all the
atmospheric effects and detailing in Photoshop with straight "eye-control." So, as already said, I would
not consider myself as a pure 3d artist, my work is always a mixture of 2d and 3d.

Ricky Grove: What sort of research do you do for your creations (if any)? Do you draw or sketch
anything at the start? Do photographs or sections of photographs play a role in your process?
You know, Francis Bacon, the great painter always tried to encourage accidents to happen in his
paintings so he could use them to re-imagine his work; does accident play any role in the creation
of your imagery.

Markus Vogt: Yes, working with accidents or randomness during the creation process is a very clever
and effective approach. That is one of the most interesting aspects in art in general. Sometimes I study
film screenshots for reference, regarding certain camera point of views or light setups. I do not always
draw any sketches before starting. Often I sketch something on top of an already existing character or
base image to see in which direction I could go with the piece.

Cabinet of Madness

Ricky Grove: You have a statement at your website (markusvogt.eu) describing your work:

"My pictures are meant for all persons who are interested in real or idealistic graphic art and
for those who are open-minded for various styles and do not want to see the same kind of
creation over and over again. I do not want to follow certain "up to date" trends or making images just for a lot of
meaningless comments or expectations of others - unfortunately you can often find exactly this
behaviour in many online communities and forums."

I find this statement to be refreshing as it tells people that they should not expect to see the same
mediocre art at your website. Was this your intention? What kind of art are you trying to create?
Do you have more respect for art that is creative than simply re-working previous ideas and
themes?

Markus Vogt: Yes, that was my intention. I´ve joined various online graphic communites a long time
ago and saw exactly this behaviour over and over again. Lots of people who comment on other works
and vice versa only. Only publicity and exposure works, unknown artists are often ignored even if they
produce good quality work. That´s not the way art should be in my opinion. So, originality and
versatility are definitely key. Why create always the same kind of thing over and over when you have
endless possibilites with today´s programs?

And yes, I have much more respect for creative and imaginative kind of art which is not already seen a
thousand times before. Although often it could be difficult and time consuming to achieve such a result.

Ricky Grove: Your imagery is so strong and poetic, have you ever considered creating an animated
film? Where do you hope to take your artwork in the future?

Markus Vogt: A few years ago I experimented with some smaller motion graphics animation
projects in CINEMA 4D, but nowadays I am concentrating on stills only. I do not really want to tell too
much about what could happens in the future. That is too unsure and does not really make sense to
me...or it is simply impossible.
Considering myself, I would hope to achieve even more individual, unique and imaginative design work.

Ricky Grove: You've been at Renderosity.com since 2004; have you found it an interesting place to
display your art? What do you think of the community here?

Markus Vogt: Yes, Renderosity is okay, although I would wish to receive a little bit more constructive
critiques. Every artist should be interested in critiques as this is the only way to improve their own skills. I think this could be improved at Renderosity, as well as the opportunity to respond to comments directly
under the original comment. This would simplify the communication with the members.

Ricky Grove: Your website is really well designed and displays your art very effectively; did you
design the site yourself?

Markus Vogt: Yes I made the site by myself, although I have to say that I am really not a web designer
and do not program html code. For this site I wanted the design as minimalistic and clean as possible.
So simplicity was my intention.

Ricky Grove [gToon], Staff Columnist with the Renderosity Front Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters, experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch his blog here.

November 16, 2009

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By: calum5 on 11/16/09
Great interview!Markus,good reading up more on you as knowing you for so long as a community friend hardly tells a story.Facinating insight ,great to know you some more and I look forward to seeing more of your unique appreciated in depth art.Regards cal

By: reciecup on 11/16/09
Really nice interview. I've always wanted to know more about this artist as he is definitly one of my favorites. He really deserves the recognition.

By: Thandaluz on 11/21/09
Great interview, great artist.Congratulations Markus.